or him because of his obviously hopeless
worship of Miss Beaumont, and of esteem for him because of the direct
realistic account of the history of Wimpole which he had given. Still, I
was sorry that he seemed so steadily set against the man, and could
not help referring it to an instinct of his personal relations, however
nobly disguised from himself.

In the middle of these meditations, Grant whispered in my ear what was
perhaps the most startling of all interruptions.

"In the name of God, let's get away."

I have never known exactly in how odd a way this odd old man affected
me. I only know that for some reason or other he so affected me that I
was, within a few minutes, in the street outside.

"This," he said, "is a beastly but amusing affair."

"What is?" I asked, baldly enough.

"This affair. Listen to me, my old friend. Lord and Lady Beaumont have
just invited you and me to a grand dinner-party this very night, at
which Mr Wimpole will be in all his glory. Well, there is nothing very
extraordinary about that. The extraordinary thing is that we are not
going."

"Well, really," I said, "it is already six o'clock and I doubt if we
could get home and dress. I see nothing extraordinary in the fact that
we are not going."

"Don't you?" said Grant. "I'll bet you'll see something extraordinary in
what we're doing instead."

I looked at him blankly.

"Doing instead?" I asked. "What are we doing instead?"

"Why," said he, "we are waiting for one or two hours outside this house
on a winter evening. You must forgive me; it is all my vanity. It is
only to show you that I am right. Can you, with the assistance of this
cigar, wait until both Sir Walter Cholmondeliegh and the mystic Wimpole
have left this house?"

"Certainly," I said. "But I do not know which is likely to leave first.
Have you any notion?"

"No," he said. "Sir Walter may leave first in a glow of rage. Or again,
Mr Wimpole may leave first, feeling that his last epigram is a thing to
be flung behind him like a firework. And Sir Walter may remain some
time to analyse Mr Wimpole's character. But they will both have to leave
within reasonable time, for they will both have to get dressed and come
back to dinner here tonight."

As he spoke the shrill double whistle from the porch of the great house
drew a dark cab to the dark portal. And then a thing happened that we
really had not expected. Mr Wimpole and Sir Walter Cholmondeliegh came
out at the sa